3 54 



Handbook of Nature-Study 



Trumpet mines in leaf of apple. 

 Photo by M. V. Slingerland, 



growth it makes wider the httle door, through which it entered; it does 

 this very neatly, the door is an even oval, and looks as if it were made 

 with the use of dividers. After thus opening the door, the caterpillar 

 changes to a little, long pupa, very close to its exit; and later it emerges, 

 as an exquisite little moth with silvery bands on its narrow, brown wings, 



and a luxurious fringe 

 on the edges of its 

 narrow, hind wings 

 and also on the outer 

 hind edges of the front 

 wings. 



The gross mines in 

 the leaves of dock and 

 beet are not pretty. 

 The poor leaves are 

 slitted, sometimes for 

 their whole length, 

 and soon turn brown 

 and lie prone on the 

 ground, or dangle 

 pathetically from the 

 stalk. These mines 

 are made by the larvae 

 of a fly, and a whole 

 family live in the 

 same habitation. If 

 we hold a leaf thus 

 mined up to the light, 

 while it is still green, 

 we can see several of 

 the larvae working, 

 each making a bag 

 in the life substance 

 of the leaf, and yet all joining together to make a great blister. The flies 

 that do this mischief belong to the family Anthomyina; and there are 

 several species which have the perturbing habit of mining the leaves of 

 beets and spinach. It behooves those of us who are fond of these 

 "greens," as our New England ancestors called them, to hold every leaf 



The pine-needle leaf-miner. The mined leaves of 

 pine natural size. The caterpillar, pupa and moth 

 of the leaf miner mitch enlarged. The lines show actual 

 size of insect. 



Comstock's Manual. 



